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Newsletter : 0fax0313.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>March 13, 2000, Vol. 8, No 47
New Israeli Bill Would Exempt Newlyweds
By Arutz-7
Knesset member Rabbi Chaim Druckman (National Religious Party) has submitted a proposal for a new law forbidding the army to call newlyweds for reserves service. Basing his bill on a biblical commandment, Druckman explained in his proposal that reserve duty, "especially if it is lengthy, detaches a young husband from his home and his new wife" and makes the transition from single to married life even more difficult. The new bill would prevent a man from being called up for service in his first year of married life.
Arab League Says Lebanese Withdrawal Could Result in War
By Ross Dunn (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israel's government says it is baffled and angered by a warning from the Arab League that Israel's planned withdrawal of troops from southern Lebanon could lead to a new war in the Middle East.
Senior Israeli cabinet ministers say they are astonished by the Arab League's condemnation of the planned pullout of troops by July from Israel's security zone in southern Lebanon. The Israeli ministers said the declaration of the meeting of the Arab League Saturday in Beirut contradicted previous demands for Israel to unconditionally end its military occupation of Lebanon.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak told his cabinet that declarations of this kind would not advance the peace process.
Arab League foreign ministers called their first-ever meeting in Beirut in a gesture of solidarity with Lebanon. The meeting took place one week after Israel announced all soldiers would be brought home by July with or without peace treaties with Lebanon and Syria.
The Arab League called for all countries in the Middle East to consider cutting ties with the Jewish state. The league warned that any unilateral Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon, unless part of a wider settlement, could set of a new Middle East conflict.
Arab ministers said such an accord should also include an agreement by Israel to hand back the strategic Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria during the 1967 war.
But Israeli foreign minister David Levy accuses Arab foreign ministers of doubletalk for warning of more fighting while at the same time appealing for peace.
Israeli Justice minister Yossi Beilin says the Syrian logic against an Israeli pullout is surreal. Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres says Lebanon has placed itself in an absurd position. He says Lebanon may be the first country in history to oppose the voluntary withdrawal of an occupying foreign power from its soil.
Pope Apologizes for Historical Catholic Excesses
By Sabina Castelfranco (VOA-Rome)
During a special mass in Vatican City, Pope John Paul II apologized for the sins and errors committed by followers of the Catholic Church. The pope marked the first Sunday of Lent with a powerful call for repentance.
For the first time in the Roman Catholic Church's history, a pope has called for forgiveness for the sins and errors committed by its - sons and daughters.
Pope John Paul, who proclaimed Sunday as a Day of Pardon led a solemn ceremony in Saint Peter's Basilica, leading a penitential procession of cardinals to the altar of the confession and its 15th century crucifix.
Five cardinals and two bishops read the list of sins committed by the members of the Church during its long history. They mentioned the painful chapters of a memory that Pope John Paul says he wants to purify.
The past sins of the church included its treatment of Jews, women, and heretics, as well as the forced conversion of native people and - violence in the service of truth - a phrase used to describe the Crusades.
After each of the faults of the past was read out, the pope, wearing the purple vestments of Lent, asked for pardon in the name of the church and its members. We forgive and ask for forgiveness - he said - we confess our responsibilities for the evils of today. The pope pledged - the church is committed to the purification of its memory.
For each of the faults that were read out, a candle was lit and after the long list was finished, the pope embraced the crucifix as a sign of repentance.
The penitential act began in front of the Pieta, the 15th century marble sculpture by Michelangelo, and ended on the Basilica's main altar, built on the tomb of Saint Peter.
The failings of the church were outlined in a 90-page document titled "Memory and Reconciliation: the Church and the Mistakes of the Past," which was presented earlier this week in the Vatican. In the Sunday mass the pope said that understanding the errors of the past serves to reawaken Catholic consciences in the face of present commitments, opening the road of conversion. The Pope's mea culpa (request for forgiveness) was one of the most significant acts of his 21-year papacy and an unprecedented event in the history of the church.
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